Legislation to renew tax breaks for several industries will be at the top of incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden’s to-do list once he takes that panel’s gavel, he told reporters Tuesday.

“My sense is that the focus at the outset is likely to be the extender package,” Wyden said after meeting with Democrats at a regular party luncheon on Capitol Hill.

A total of 55 tax provisions for everything from biodiesel fuel to Hollywood movie sets expired at the end of last year because Congress did not act to extend them.

Wyden said he feels there’s an opportunity to make renewing the tax breaks “a bridge” to more fundamental tax reform.

“I think the tax system as a whole is a rotten, dysfunctional mess,” the Oregon Democrat told reporters.

Wyden is poised to take the committee chairmanship post from Max Baucus, who was last week confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to China. Baucus had worked on a comprehensive tax overhaul with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican. Analysts are highly skeptical that a tax overhaul can be completed this year, given that elections are coming up.